Palestinians renew calls to free 'leader-in-waiting' Marwan Barghouti

Talk of releasing jailed Fatah leader has emerged as part of tit-for-tat demands from the Israeli and Palestinian leaderships

A Palestinian artist finishes a portrait of Marwan Barghouti on a barrier near the Israeli-controlled Qalandia checkpoint, between Jerusalem and Ramallah. Photograph: Abbas Momani/AFP/Getty
Abbas Momani/AFP/Getty Images

In her suite of offices in a modern block in the West Bank city of Ramallah, the wife of Marwan Barghouti, the most prominent of the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, considers the significance of the latest efforts to seek his release.

Fadwa Barghouti has been here before. In the negotiations to secure the release of Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier kidnapped by Hamas in Gaza, her husband's name came up for a possible exchange.

Again last year, when the peace process was revived with a succession of prisoner releases, Barghouti's name was in the mix.

It came up again when his case was raised last week in the White House by the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, who asked Barack Obama to put some pressure on the Israelis.

Arrested in 2002, Barghouti is serving five life sentences after being convicted by an Israeli court in 2004 for his involvement in five murders. But while others convicted of violence by Israeli courts have been released, Barghouti remains in jail.

Although he denies the allegations that he directly ordered killings, he is viewed by a significant number of Israelis as a convicted terrorist and the case of the 54-year-old prisoner has reopened the debate between those who say he should stay in prison and those – including some Israelis – who argue that he offers the best hope of delivering a two-state solution.

Fadwa Barghouti: 'It has been a long and horrible journey.' Photograph: Fethi Belaid/AFP/Getty Images

"The most important thing is that the leadership is pushing his case," says Fadwa, surrounded by photographs of her husband.

Barghouti, an MP and prominent leader of Fatah during the second intifada, has said he will stand for president in the future. There are many who believe he would win easily, even if still jailed.

"I saw him last week," says Fadwa, who is permitted two 45-minute visits a month to see her husband in Hadarim prison in central Israel, where he shares a cell with two others.

She brings him news of his four adult children and of the progress of the peace negotiations from the Palestinian leadership. She also sends him the books he reads voraciously in prison – in English, Hebrew and Arabic – that have included the political memoirs of figures such as the former US president Bill Clinton and former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright.

"He has spent 18 years of his life in an Israeli prison. He was deported for seven years. It has been a long and horrible journey," says Fadwa. "Despite all this he believes the conflict should be resolved by a two-state solution. He does not believe there is an alternative in a one-state solution except more bloodshed and more agony."

She says he is concerned by the lack of unity among the Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas.

"His message is clear," says Ziad Abu Ein, deputy minister for detainees and a longtime friend and political colleague of Barghouti – Barghouti was arrested at his house in Ramallah in April 2002. "Yes to peace with the state of Israel. No to peace with the occupation." But by that, he adds, Barghouti means civil disobedience and no violence, not seeing an armed struggle as being "beneficial" to the Palestinian people.

Marwan Barghouti is serving five life sentences in an Israeli prison. Photograph: Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Images

Last year, in a 17-point letter he released from prison, Barghouti called for an end to security co-operation between the Palestinian Authority and Israel; support for the sanctions and boycott movement and an end to negotiations while Israel is still building settlements.

Abu Ein – like other Palestinian political figures and analysts – sees the championing of Barghouti's case by Abbas with Obama last week both in terms of a negotiating strategy and politically beneficial to Abbas.

Other analysts have remarked that Barghouti's release would assist Abbas in the internal conflicts inside Fatah and as an interlocutor with Hamas.

"For Abbas to agree to continue the peace talks beyond the April deadline, even for two months, he needs a 'basket', something he can show to other Arab leaders and to the Palestinian people."

The renewed calls for Barghouti's release have emerged as part of a tit-for-tat of reciprocal demands from the Israeli and Palestinian leaderships – for Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, Barghouti's release, and now reportedly Netanyahu's demand for the release by the US of the spy Jonathan Pollard.

If the prisoner release issue is crucially important as a condition in this round, it is because of the tangible impact it has on Palestinian support for negotiations, which turned public opinion from two-thirds opposition to talks, to more than 50% support.

The championing of Barghouti's release by some prominent Israelis who dealt with him in negotiations in the 1990s is perhaps unsurprising for a man who, it was said at one time, had the phone numbers of half the Knesset.

Yossi Beilin, a former Israeli politician who played a key role in the Oslo accords, has long been opposed to Barghouti's imprisonment and in a recent article called again for his release, although he rejected his depiction by some supporters.

"Barghouti is not the Dalai Lama or Gandhi. The fact that he has been behind bars for a long time doesn't make him Nelson Mandela either," wrote Beilin. "He made a grievous error of judgment in the fall of 2000 when he tried to face off with Hamas in an arena where Hamas has a significant advantage – terrorism and violence.

"He is, however, one of the most important Palestinian leaders, and whether free or behind bars, he is a candidate to replace Mahmoud Abbas."

Speaking to the Guardian, Beilin reiterated his point. "I am not an admirer in that sense. He is shrewd. A street cat. He is a proud Palestinian who is proud of his movement. I saw him as a partner. Someone committed to a political solution.

"He is a politician and a statesman. Like other politicians who have been involved with violence, we have somehow to find a way of dealing with him in a political framework … because he can lead those who follow him to an agreement."

Beilin is not optimistic, however, that Barghouti will be released soon, which he suggests Israel may rue in the future.

"If Mahmoud Abbas does not stand again for president and Barghouti does run, he will win easily. Then Israel will have the Palestinian president in jail."